A Great Beginning
by Halo and Wings
Summary: When Lily is a timid girl in a new world, James and his friends show interest and show her the fun of magic.


A Great Beginning 

Lily Evans, Gryffindor.

James Potter had not taken more than a casual glance at her before, even though they had been in the same classes for a week.  But as she now looked more than a little ready to fall off her broom, his inner knight-in-shining armor tore him away from his friends.

Just as Lily started to make little gasping noises and slide to the left, James reached her.  With an almighty tug she was pulled right.

"Never been on a broomstick before?" he asked the near-stranger, disentangling himself from her grasping hands.

"Never!  I'm from a Muggle family.  You just can't learn this from a book!" she replied, glancing nervously between him and the ground.

James leaned in confidentially.  "I wouldn't mention your family around the Slytherins if I were you."  He sat back upright and talked normally.  "Well, I've been on some type of broom since I can remember.  You'll get the hang of it soon enough!  By the way, I'm James Potter."

"Lily Evans.  Sometime," she leaned over, but not too far lest she fall, "could you explain what you meant?  About my family and the Slytherins?"

Just as he was about to reply, Sirius Black flew past, making kissing noises.  To protect his honor, James abruptly left Lily, chasing Sirius and terrorizing the inexperienced wizards and witches until Madame Hooch threatened to pull them from the sky.

When Madame Hooch finally got them back in an ordered line for the lesson, James, bored to tears, only paid half his attention to the instructor.  His roving gaze settled on the poor redhead down the row who was being tormented by a Slytherin.  As they left the field, he caught Lily's eye and winked before disappearing into the castle.

~*~*~

James was reclining in an armchair in the common room later that night, lazily levitating his quills and ignoring his homework.  He jumped and sat upright when he heard a slightly timid voice say his name.  He turned his head away from the table where he, Sirius, and Remus had their homework spread out to find Lily standing directly behind him, running a hand up her arm nervously.

"Hi, Lily! What are you doing here?"

She opened her mouth to reply, but Sirius interrupted her.  "You know, James!"  Sirius got up and dramatically started roving around the table.  "You showed this poor girl how wonderfully you fly, so now you have another girl in love with you.  She's come to ask you to walk her to every class from now on!"  When Sirius bent down on one knee by James's chair, he and Lily moved as one to knock Sirius backwards.

"Lily, I don't care if you are in love with James, you're all right," Remus laughed. "Sit down."

She laughed but didn't sit.  "Thanks, um, Remus, right?"  He nodded.  "And Sirius, I believe?"  He gave nodded his head to her before climbing up into the seat offered to Lily.  "Well, I just wanted to thank you, James.  I truly believe I would have killed myself if you hadn't come flying over."

As James grinned proudly, Sirius made little red hearts bubble from his wand and encircle James and Lily.  James retaliated by sending a little rain cloud to hover above Sirius's head, dousing him and lightning popping the hearts.  "Lily, believe me, I'm not as crazy as Sirius."

"Yes, Lily, but he's almost there!" Remus was still grinning when James shot a rain cloud at him too.

She just laughed, waved, and walked out the portrait hole.

~*~*~

Lily walked into the common room from the library, where she'd just finished looking up information for a History of Magic paper.  The first years had been at Hogwarts for a month, so all the teachers had decided it was a good idea to load them down with homework.

She gazed around the room for a spot to finish her paper.  As it was getting late, the fire was burning low.  A dark red glow that didn't quite reach the corners fell on James and Sirius, talking quietly over a low table.  "They're never quiet!" she thought, and made her way over to investigate.

She was nearly within hearing range when Sirius spotted her.  He flew back into the couch and James mimicked him, trying to appear as if they had been innocently lounging on their couches all along.  "What are you two up to?" she asked.

James looked worriedly at Sirius, but a mischievous grin met him there.  Sirius grabbed Lily's arm and pulled her down onto the couch beside him.  The boys seriously looked around the room, then they leaned toward Lily, an unsure look on James' face.  "Can we trust you to keep a secret?" Sirius whispered, the grin growing across his face.  "A very, very important secret?"

She looked from Sirius to James and back again.  Surely it wasn't that serious?  "Sure."

"Well," Sirius started, "Things are too quiet.  We've got so much homework people aren't having any fun.  We plan to change that."

"With a great joke," James added, starting to grin as well.

"What are you going to do?" Lily asked, growing slightly nervous from their excited expressions.

"We don't know yet," said Sirius, "but you've just volunteered to help us!"

"Me?!" cried Lily, then lowered her voice.  "I've never pulled a prank on anybody!"

James and Sirius exchanged shocked looks.  "No?" said Sirius, turning back to Lily.  "Well, you must start now!  Nobody can know our plans without taking part in them!"

"Right!" said James, striking his hand with his wand for emphasis.  "How else could we trust you?  Besides, you need reforming."

Lily smiled at the silly, mischievous looks in their eyes.  "Ok, I'll do it.  What have you come up with so far?"

~*~*~

Even later that night, far past their curfew, Lily leaned against the door, watching down the hall.  The door opened suddenly, making her stagger backwards.  James quickly steadied her.  Blushing, she quickly asked, "How did it go?"

"All right," said James.  "Some weren't very cooperative, but in the end we got them all."

"Yeah, and we left charms on the perches to get the ones that are gone right now.  Helen wasn't thrilled at first, but James explained to her." Sirius went on, sneaking down the corridor to peep around the corner.

"Poor Helen," grinned Lily, and ran around the corner with James at Sirius' signal.

~*~*~

That morning at breakfast, Lily sat in front of James and Sirius.  She broke off a yawn to laugh when the owl post came.

Every owl that flew in was different, with special effects or a new color to their feathers.  The whole school stared up in wonder for a moment, then most burst out laughing when their pet swooped down to their owners.

Lily giggled when Helen landed on her shoulder then hopped moodily onto the table.  She was bright yellow and glittered like a gold nugget, quite differently from her usual snowy white appearance.  James' owl Archimedes landed on the table beside him, his body red with gold swirls.

"You would give yours the best makeover with our house colors, wouldn't you, James?" she whispered, trying to shield her eyes from her own owl's glare.

Before James could reply, Sirius leaned over and said, "James doesn't have nearly as much style as me!"  He gestured to his own owl, black with silver stars sparkling all over.  On the owl's back, the stars seemed to form a pattern.

"A constellation?" Lily guessed, and peered closer.  "A dog…."

"Sirius, you know."  He sat back and grinned smugly as owls across the Hall fled from clueless wizards trying to undo the spells.

~*~*~

The three grinned all morning until Potions wrecked their good mood.  Spending most of last night charming the owlery, they hadn't read their lesson at all.  And Professor Strom knew it.  They endured him for an hour, their moods turning blacker and blacker.  But when class was over and they emerged from the dungeons together, a single purple feather on the floor returned their giddiness to them.  Their first prank had gone off without a hitch.

By the end of the day, most of the school knew who had done the enchantment.  Lily, however, was generally left out of the story, since she hadn't actually done the spell.  James and Sirius, who were reveling in the attention, couldn't understand why she was fine with that.  "Oh, come on," she said, looking up from her Potions book to the two boys standing over her.  You think I want the reputation you two are going to have?"

~*~*~

"Go Ravenclaw!" screamed Lily, momentarily deafening James.

It was the first Quidditch game of the year.  Lily had pretty neglected the girl friends she'd made in the first week for James, Sirius, Remus, and their other friend, Peter.  All of them were sitting in the stands together in the Gryffindor section, cheering on the Ravenclaw team and booing Slytherin.

Lily really didn't care much for Quidditch; in fact, she was a bit surprised that a part of the Wizarding world was so boring.  But when her friends got so excited and yelled all around her, she couldn't help but feel a bit of enthusiasm.  She smiled as she watched the Ravenclaw Chaser fly past the hoops, scoring against a tough Keeper.  Sirius was shaking Remus, pointing and screaming, "Did you see that?"

After the cheer died down, James leaned over and said, "You know, Lily, I'm going to be on the team next year.  When the seventh years leave, some spots will be open.  The team roster has my name on it!"

"Well, you sure can fly.  In all the classes we've had, Madame Hooch hasn't even had to correct your grip!"

"Lily, there's no need for you to stare at James on his broomstick," said Sirius, leaning over James. "I'm trying out for the team next year!  You can stare at me!"

"Sirius, I do not have a crush on you, James, or anybody else.  I've told you that.  Many, many times."

"Lily, Lily.  I know better," said Sirius with an annoying, knowing smile.  Lily started to climb right across James in her effort to hit Sirius, but just then, Frank Longbottom's voice echoed throughout the pitch.  **"He got the Snitch!  Slytherin wins!"  **The spectators from the other three houses all groaned while the Slytherins shrieked with glee.

As they all stood up to leave, Lily quickly punched Sirius in the shoulder, then ran off to join her roommates.  James laughed as Sirius moaned, rubbing his arm.  "Well, guess she hates you now, mate.  Luckily for me, I'm not so cocky."

~*~*~

**A/N:**  I wrote most of this in 2001, a long time before OOTP.  I meant for it to be a grand love story, since I thought the first scene would make for a cute beginning for one.  However, I never got around to it and now we know that would not be canon.  So, since I liked the story too much to just scrap it, I edited it a bit (You change styles a lot in two years!) and tried to give it a canon ending there.  Thanks for reading!


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